Awakening Together: Building Beautiful and Beloved Communities with Larry Yang

October 21, 2017 @ 9:30 am - 3:30 pm

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Join ICD Founding Teacher, Larry Yang for this daylong retreat. Building community can seem like a worthy purpose, a high aspiration, even a wholesome ideal. But the practices of Mindfulness and Lovingkindness invite us into experiencing more than that. The Compassion and Wisdom of Mindfulness invites us into the experience that Community is not just possible, but that it is necessary for our spiritual growth and path…. and that it is, sometimes, a challenging thing to accomplish.

Building community is not a luxury; it is not a hobby; it is a necessity in the intensities of this current world. Please come with the intention to really explore what Community feels like and to experience both how Community holds us together to grow and love, and also how it can push us beyond who we think we are as individuals and as groups, in the beauty of our human condition.

Beginning and experienced meditators are welcomed. Please bring a bag lunch, if you can. There will be a book signing and purchase opportunity for Larry’s new book Awakening Together at the end of the daylong.

Larry Yang teaches mindfulness and loving kindness retreats nationally and has a special interest in creating access to the Dharma for diverse, multicultural communities. Larry has practiced meditation for almost 30 years, with extensive time in southeast Asia, and a 6 month period of ordination as a monastic under the guidance of Ajahn Tong. Larry is on the Teachers Council of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and is one of the core teachers of both East Bay Meditation Center (Oakland) and Insight Community of the Desert (Palm Springs). His current focus is training spiritual leadership within Communities of Color and LGBTQI communities. Larry was honored for his work in equity and inclusion by being selected as the community’s choice for Grand Marshal in the 2016 San Francisco LGBTIQ Pride Parade, whose theme was “For Racial and Economic Justice.” He has been developing community meditation teachers in Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leadership Program for 10 years, and is one of the core trainers for the current Spirit Rock Dharma Teacher Training Program to develop fully empowered Dharma teachers in multicultural communities.

Cost: The registration fee for this event is $45 with a sliding scale. This fee is shared with the teacher, however does not mean the costs of the event or the teachings are fully covered. A dana (voluntary donations) may be made at the event, and we encourage you to offer as much support of generosity as you are able. Please know that our policy is that no one is ever turned away for lack of funds. When people are able to extend as much generosity as possible, financial accessibility to our events comes with greater ease for the whole community.